WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — U.S. House Republicans are considering the “virtue” of passing a short-term increase in the government’s borrowing authority to provide time to discuss cutting the debt, budget committee chairman Paul Ryan said.

House Republicans, who are holding a policy retreat near Williamsburg, are seeking to devise a legislative strategy for addressing a series of fiscal deadlines over the next two months. Ryan said Thursday a short-term extension of the debt ceiling was an option being debated.

“We are discussing the possible virtue of a short-term debt-limit extension so we have a better chance of getting the Senate and White House involved in discussions in March,” Ryan said at the retreat. “What we want to achieve is a two-way discussion between Democrats and Republicans and out of that hopefully some progress being made on getting this deficit and debt under control.”

Speaking at his first news conference since he returned to the House after an unsuccessful vice presidential campaign, Ryan said the short-term option was one of many being discussed. He declined to say how long an extension would be.

“All options are on the table as far as we are concerned,” Ryan, of Wisconsin, said when pressed for details. Out of those discussions Republicans “hope to achieve consensus on a plan to proceed so we can make progress on controlling deficits and debt.”

Louisiana Republican John Fleming said lawmakers discussed the possibility of enacting a series of three-month extensions of a debt-limit increase to try to push President Barack Obama into negotiating with Congress on spending cuts.

The president has vowed not to negotiate the terms of any debt-limit legislation the way he did in 2011.

Such a tactic may prove effective at persuading Obama to discuss spending cuts because “he can’t get onto other agendas that he sees as important like immigration and gun violence while we are still wrangling every three months on debt ceilings,” Fleming said in an interview.

Fleming stressed no decisions have been made on how to proceed. Helater said Republicans have “no interest” in shutting down the government. Yet, “Republicans would have a real problem giving the president a clean debt ceiling,” even on a short-term basis.

Among the fiscal deadlines facing legislators is the need to raise the country’s $16.4-trillion debt ceiling next month.

Another showdown may emerge in early March, when Congress must confront the $110 billion in automatic spending cuts, half from defense, that were put off in the tax deal that passed the House and the Senate on Jan. 1. On March 27, a short-term measure that funds government agencies will lapse, creating another potential fight.

Although the debt limit has been periodically raised since its creation in 1917 — with Congress increasing or revising it 79 times, including 49 times under Republican presidents, since 1960 — Republicans are preparing for confrontations with Obama and Senate Democrats over spending.

The Treasury Department has said it expects to run out of emergency measures to prevent a breach of the current debt limit between mid-February and early March.

Investors in U.S. Treasury bonds, who most directly bear the risk of a government default, haven’t shown any alarm.

The last time Congress fought over raising the ceiling, Obama signed an increase on Aug. 2, 2011, the day the Treasury Department warned U.S. borrowing authority would expire. Standard & Poor’s cut the nation’s credit rating. Still, yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes declined to 2.56 percent on Aug. 5 and have continued to drop. The yield rose five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 1.87 percent at 4:15 p.m. today in New York.

“The worst thing for the economy is for this Congress and this administration to do nothing to get our debt and deficits under control,” Ryan said Thursday. “We think the worst thing for the economy is to move past these events that are occurring with no progress made in the debt and deficit.”

Ryan said with divided political control of Congress, there are limits to the ability of Republicans to achieve the party’s budget-cutting goals. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio has said any increase in the debt limit must be accompanied by equal cuts in government spending.

“While we aspire to give the country a specific and clear vision of what we think is the right way to go,” Republicans must “recognize the divided-government moment that we have and the fiscal deadlines that are approaching,” Ryan said.

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U.S. Rebublicans open to short-term increase in debt ceiling

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